Prof. Dr. Silvano Dragonieri is an Associate Professor at the Department of Respiratory Diseases, University of Bari. He graduated from pre-university education (Liceo Scientifico Scacchi, Bari) in 1997 and started Medical School at Bari University, Bari. During his studies, he spent 6 months as an Erasmus student at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands. He graduated Medical School cum laude in 2003. The same year he was admitted to the Post-graduate School of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Bari. In November 2005 he started his PhD project, the results of which are described in this thesis, supervised by Prof. Dr. Peter Sterk initially in the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and then at the Department of Respiratory Medicine of the Academic Medical Center (AMC), Amsterdam. In November 2007 he became a Specialist of Respiratory Medicine. In November 2010 he became a Researcher in Respiratory Diseases at the University of Bari. He has made significant contributions to the field through his extensive publication record. His research interests include exhaled breath analysis, volatile organic compounds, electronic nose-breath biomarkers, induced sputum, etc.